The Kingfisher 1971-2021 - North Fork Audubon Society
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The Kingfisher
S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1
A Publication of North Fork Audubon Society, Inc. /www.northforkaudubon.org
1971-2021
1
More photos on Page 13
Honoring a Half-Century of Conservation on the North Fork
This year marks our 50th anniversary, and we are proud indeed to celebrate all that North Fork Audubon
Society has accomplished in partnership with members, our board, partners, and elected officials. NFAS start-
ed in 1971 with a mission of connecting people to nature. Today, we’re a trusted leader in conserving places
on the North Fork that birds and our communities need.
We’ve achieved some remarkable things in partnership with our members since 1971. Here are just a few of
the them:
Honoring Roy Latham by dedicating his name to our nature center at
Inlet County Park.
Promoting community science through involvement in Audubon’s bird
counts.
Monitoring nesting shorebirds, like Piping Plovers, at Orient Beach
State Park.
Advancing policy in Albany to protect crucial habitat around Plum
Island.
Building a half-century of partnerships to achieve our education and
conservation goals.
Encouraging homeowners to plant native species that benefit birds
and other wildlife.
We are excited to celebrate our 50th anniversary and to continue working with members like you to see what
the next 50 years bring. Your donations will help us continue to protect and preserve the natural beauty of the
North Fork. Please click here to make a gift today to your local Audubon chapter, North Fork Audubon
Society.
Thank you for all that you do to support our organization, and please be healthy and safe.
Peggy Lauber
NFAS President
Annual Pre-Order Native Plant Sale
Pickup at the Roy Latham Nature Center at Inlet Pond County Park
***
Memorial Day Weekend 2021
Saturday, May 28 & Sunday, May 29
More info to follow!
Programs held at Red House or Inlet Pond Suffolk County Park are
co-sponsored by County Executive Steve Bellone and Suffolk County Parks.
2
President’s Message
As we celebrate fifty years as a local chapter of National Audubon, I’d like to
pay tribute to our outgoing president who has been with us for more than ten of
those years, Debbie O’Kane.
A few years ago, Debbie had the vision to rename our headquarters at Inlet
Pond County Park, formerly known as The Red House, to The Roy Latham Na-
ture Center, to honor the beloved naturalist from Orient who contributed greatly
to our local natural history. Debbie sought permission from Latham family
members, as well as Suffolk County, to make this happen. Beyond naming the
building, her goal has been to make this a true and vibrant nature center.
Debbie encouraged one of our new board members, Robin Simmen and her wonderful Master Gardener volun-
teers to design and plant the beautiful pollinator rain garden which now graces the entrance to our Nature Cen-
ter.
Her advocacy for plastic bag reduction was a particular passion. Debbie worked diligently along with fellow
board member Gwynn Schroeder to educate the community about the need for this. Ultimately New York
State banned single-use plastic bags altogether last year. This surely would not have happened without local
action and education. In addition, educating the community about sustainable landscaping and lawn care and
limiting the need for pesticides have all been important initiatives under Debbie’s leadership.
But beyond these exciting accomplishments there were the endless hours of not-so-exciting yet necessary
work to keep our chapter going--paperwork, phone calls, emails and meetings, the mundane duties that must
be performed by the president of a local Audubon chapter residing in a County-owned property. For all this,
we extend our heartfelt thanks to Debbie.
There have been several changes at NFAS this past year. In addition to Debbie moving from Chapter President
to Treasurer, Gwynn has resumed her position as Vice-President. An invaluable asset to NFAS, Gwynn has
helped us over the years with membership, advocacy and even as temporary Treasurer, when Bernadette
Deerkoski needed to step down due to health issues. Thanks go to Bernadette, and to former Board members
Bill White and Ann Heller for their service. We welcomed two new
Board members in January, Cassie Kanz and Master Gardener Ellen
Birenbaum, who are bringing new energy and enthusiasm to our
ranks.
In 2020 we said goodbye to Tom Damiani, who holds the record for
service at NFAS – 25+ years! He was a Board member for decades,
then staff member overseeing the Nature Center and trails at Inlet
Pond Park. But Tom is so much more to us, a beloved and respected
local birder who led “Tuesdays with Tom” bird walks year-round,
and who entertained us at our holiday gatherings with his musical Rick at Dragonfly Day Festival
performances and original “Jepbirdy” team competitions.
We also said goodbye to Board member Rick Kedenburg. Rick was generally quiet and thoughtful, but never
hesitated to speak his mind when an issue was important to him. He could always be counted on to volunteer
wherever needed, but his “specialty” was leading bird walks and writing about nature, both of which he con-
tinues to do. Rick is beloved and respected for his knowledge of birds and all creatures, flora and fauna, and a
mentor to me personally. Both Rick and Tom will be dearly missed on our Board.
Continued on Page 7 3
Let’s Celebrate with a Native Songscape
by Robin Simmen, Chair, NFAS Landscape Committee
The natural landscape is transforming right before our eyes. A hundred years ago, open farmland surrounded a
red house now known as the Roy Latham Nature Center in Inlet Pond County Park. Over time, locust trees—
not native to the North Fork but brought here for their sturdy lumber—spread quickly across its abandoned
farm fields. Indigenous cat briars and brambles, which like disturbed soil, found niches beneath the new tree
canopy, alongside such non-native invaders as mugwort, oriental bittersweet, privet, honeysuckle, and autumn
olive. A few years ago, a new thug appeared: mile-a-minute weed, an annual plant that rapidly overgrows eve-
rything and smothers the understory.
Today the invasive species at Inlet Pond County Park dominate the forest that trails down to the beach. Hiking
through this recent greenery, we may not notice the loss of native habitat—but the birds, insects, and other
wildlife do. Regardless of where they are in the food chain, they depend on the native plants they evolved with
for food; without these, many species are experiencing deep declines and may disappear completely. In fact,
the juicy caterpillars and insects that birds devour—and are a vital part of diverse, healthy ecosystems—
sometimes eat only one or two species of plants native to this area.
Last December, Suffolk County began clearing a quarter-acre slope of woods west of the Nature Center be-
cause mile-a-minute weed threatened to overwhelm it. This open space gives North Fork Audubon Society the
opportunity to create beautiful, native-plant habitat for birds, turtles, butterflies, moths, rabbits, bees, and other
wildlife living in the park. Like the rain garden planted in front of the Nature Center, we envision this as a
multi-year landscape project.
Our goal is transforming this gentle hill into a “Native
Songscape” planted with grasses and perennials, and sus-
tained by rainfall, occasional mowing, and selective weed-
ing to keep woody succession at bay. Little bluestem and
pink muhly grasses, goldenrods and beebalms are among
the many natives we’ll plant to support hummingbirds, ori-
oles, thrushes, cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches, wax-
wings, wood warblers and more species of birds we expect
to see there. Because this clearing in the forest is relatively
small, we hesitate to call it a meadow, and we’ll be flexible
with future plantings there, which could include berrying
Board members Robin Simmen and Ellen Birenbaum survey shrubs and small trees around the perimeter. Eventually,
the project area after it was cleared by Suffolk County Parks
we imagine the Native Songscape as being open for the
public to walk along mowed paths, past drifts of native
grasses and blooming wildflowers.
Our first task is to finish clearing the slope of tree stumps and woody debris from invasive plants, which
should be done soon. Then later this spring, we’d like to stabilize the soil bed by hand weeding mile-a-minute
and other invasive weeds as they emerge. After that we’ll seed the slope with a mix of cover crop and bird-
friendly native grasses/perennials to crowd out as much weed resurgence as possible. Regular mowing to a
height of 5-6 inches this summer and fall will prevent weeds from flowering and setting seed. And at the top
of the slope behind the Nature Center, the plan is to cover the newly cleared ground with a bed of wood chips,
then set up stumps and picnic tables for outdoor education programs and seating. Meanwhile, we are develop-
ing a landscape design, budget, and maintenance plan for the long process of installing the Native Songscape,
which will take at least three years to come into mature bloom.
Continued on Page 8 4
Gardening to Save Birds
By Ellen Birenbaum
The 2019 article, “The Decline of the North American Avifauna” published in Science by Rosenberg et al.,
documents the staggering decline of bird populations across North America and Canada. 529 species of birds
had a net loss of 2.9 billion birds, a 2.9% decline since 1970. Other research has shown that this steep decline
in the North American bird population is due to habitat loss, more toxic pesticide use in breeding and wintering
areas, climate change, unregulated harvest, and other forms of human-caused mortality such as cat predation,
building and automobile collisions, and electrocutions due to power line collisions.
Preserving and effectively managing large tracts of wild and rural land are critical for protection of birds. This
approach has obvious limitations since so much of our land is already subdivided. The estimates are that 54%
of the United States is already broken up into cities, suburbs, roads, malls, athletic fields and golf courses, air-
ports, and other land developments. Suburban tracts are 90% lawn, which also contributes to environmental
problems due to fertilization, mowing and pesticide use. Homeowners landscape with the narrow gardening
goal of creating beauty, using plant species that evolved in Asia, Europe, and South America. Indeed, 80% of
the plants in our yards are non-native.
Landscaping our homes using native trees, shrubs and vines has
been proposed as an effective way to protect and support out na-
tive birds. Stephen W. Kress, in the 1998 Brooklyn Botanic Gar-
den publication Bird Gardens, discusses the ways that native
plants have co-evolved with native birds over millions of years
and, by definition, are mutually dependent. Birds eat the fruits,
buds, and nectar of plants and, in so doing, pollinate plants and
disperse their seeds. Plant fruits provide no nutritional benefits to
the plants themselves other than attracting birds. Seeds are dis-
persed by attaching to feathers, by being carried on beaks or claws
Virginia creeper after feeding, during feeding, and through fecal material. The
(Parthenocissus quinquefolia)
high nitrogen content in bird excrement can also serve as fertilizer
for the seed. In eastern deciduous forests, at least 300 trees,
shrubs and vines depend solely on birds to spread their seeds.
Plants have evolved in ways to promote seed dispersal. The small
fruit size of most plants and shrubs, no greater than 3/5 of an inch,
are perfect for a bird’s gape, the interior of the bird’s open mouth.
Fruits ripen when bird migration reaches its peak. Birds have an
acute sense of vision and color discrimination, and plants that de-
pend on birds to disperse their seeds produce brightly colored
fruits that attract birds Some berries and fruits have waxy coat-
ings that reflect UV light. In addition to birds seeing more colors
than humans, birds can see parts of the ultraviolet (UV) spectrum,
allowing these berries to stand out vibrantly against green foliage.
Virginia creeper, wild grape, sassafras, and gray dogwood do not
have colorful fall fruits. Rather, their bright stems or brilliant fall
Virginia Creeper Berries Feed Eastern Bluebirds
leaves attract birds at the same time that their fruits ripen.
Continued on Page 9
5
Benefitting from a Clear, Dark Sky
by Debbie O’Kane
Because North Forkers enjoy viewing a night sky full of stars, the North Fork Dark Sky Coalition recently
formed to spread the word on the importance of dark sky initiatives. A campaign to engage Southold residents
in the benefits of a Dark Sky and why we need to reduce excessive outdoor lighting that leads to light pollution
is now in the works. Coalition members recognize that light pollution can pose a multitude of damaging ef-
fects--on birds and other wildlife, human health, our changing climate, the beauty of the night sky and also on
our pocketbooks. Through an ongoing campaign using social media, a website, newspaper articles, letters to
the editor, workshops, mailers, online programming, and special events, our intent is to get as many North
Forkers as possible onboard for reducing light pollution in our communities.
Our efforts will be highlighted during the celebration of International Dark Sky Week from April 5-12, 2021.
To compliment the Dark Sky campaign, the Southold Town Board approved Resolution 2021-70 which rec-
ognizes International Dark Sky Week, bringing greater attention to this natural resource--a clear dark sky.
“International Dark Sky Week” helps us explore the night sky and ways to protect it. During Dark Sky
Week, consider turning off any unnecessary lights and going outside to observe the night sky with your family.
A list of Dark Sky programs and activities, whether online or outdoors (and, probably, after dark) can be found
at www.northforkdarksky.org.
The coalition plans to lead into “Lights Out Week” beginning with a special Night Watch program sched-
uled for Orient Beach State Park on April 2(register here), and at the Custer Institute in Southold on
April 3 (register here), followed by with a Zoom presentation on the benefits of Dark Skies on Wednesday,
Monday, April (register here).
The coalition, comprised of representatives from the North Fork Audubon Society, Custer Institute, Coffee
Pot Cellars, Group for The East End, the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association and the North Fork Environmen-
tal Council is also focused on engaging businesses and professionals who work with artificial lighting across
the commercial spectrum--wholesale/retail merchandising, landscape/architecture/design, and construction/
installation. The goal is to discuss and identify ways to reduce light pollution, conserve electricity, and
minimize lighting costs.
Information about upcoming Dark Sky events will be shared via email to all NFAS members and is also post-
ed on our website. You can view our Dark Sky informational video on Channel 22 airing twice each day.
Keep an Eye Out for the Spotted Lanternfly
Lycorma delicatulal, or the Spotted Lanternfly, is an invasive species from
Asia that Cornell Cooperative Extension calls “the next worse thing.” Found
recently upstate NY, Staten Island and Queens, this pest feeds on the sap of
woody plants, causing damage to native species, agricultural products and
trees.
If you come across what you suspect is a Spotted Lanternfly, an egg mass
or infestation, the NYC DEC recommends taking a picture with something to
show scale, such as a coin, note the location (GPS coordinates if possible), and
forward the information to spottedlanternfly@agriculture.ny.gov.
For more information, please visit: https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/113303.html
6
Continued from Page 3
We have so many exciting initiatives underway during our 50th anniversary year and beyond:
Native Songscape, a long-term project featuring native, bird-friendly plantings and a children’s outdoor
education area
Invasive species eradication and increased trail mainte-
nance to improve the habitat at Inlet Pond County Park
Children’s outdoor nature programs and summer
nature camp, under the tutelage of program coordina-
tor Jennifer Murray
An exciting roster of in-person as well as Zoom educa-
tional programs
Bald Eagle Sightings Project
Nest box trail construction and monitoring for Eastern
Bluebirds, Purple Martins, Osprey, Kestrels and Wood
Ducks
Teaming up with like-minded local organizations
Coyote project (lead by Seatuck)
Dark Skies Initiative (together with North Fork Environmental Council)
Preserve Plum Island Coalition
How are we going to accomplish all this? With your help of course! There are so many ways you can get in-
volved with our mission, to connect people with nature. Please visit our website,
www.northforkaudubon.org and click on “volunteer” – or “donate”!
Peggy Lauber
President
Looking for a good read and an opportunity to share?
Join us as we "inaugurate"
The NFAS Book Club!
Beginning Wednesday, April 28, 2021
6:30 pm—via ZOOM
NFAS will bring together "those who love a good read" to discuss literary
works with an environmental theme.
In honor of our first Native American Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland,
we will begin with the memoir, "Braiding Sweetgrass". The author, Robin
Wall Kimmerer, uses the lens of her indigenous culture to give us an entirely
different perspective on our human interactions with nature and with each oth-
er. Elizabeth Gilbert calls the book, "a hymn of love to the world."
To sign up please send an email to info@northforkaudubon.org
We will meet virtually at 6:30 pm on 4/28. Hopefully, we can meet outdoors in the future. Let's begin by
discussing our impressions of the first half of the book--through page 201. It is truly joyful reading!
7
Native Songscape –Continued from Page 4
This is an ambitious project for an all-volunteer organization. So we are calling on you, our members, to help
in any way you can. To celebrate our chapter’s 50th anniversary of supporting bird conservation on the North
Fork, please consider earmarking a donation to NFAS to cover the Native Songscape’s many costs, including
final arborist work, buying seeds and seeding materials, perennial plant plugs, temporary fencing, signage,
mowing machinery, and more. Special thanks to Kathleen Becker for being our first community donor to this
project—we greatly appreciate your vote of confidence!
While we can’t recreate the conditions predating colonial agriculture, NFAS is investing in sustainable land-
scaping that serves us all—birds, flora, and our community. If you
have any questions or ideas about how your experience or energy
could help turn the Native Songscape idea into reality, please email
me at rsimmen@northforkaudubon.org. We look forward to seeing
you in the field.
And if you’d like to roll up your sleeves and learn how to eradicate
invasive weeds, welcome aboard! This spring you can be an active
witness in the creation of the Native Songscape by weeding its seed-
bed. Become an official Native Songscape Volunteer by signing up
for one of the Volunteer Training Weed Workshops led by Andy
Senesac, Weed Specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suf-
folk County. You’ll learn how to identify and remove invasive weeds-
Mile-a-minute
-like mile-a-minute, oriental bittersweet, and mugwort—when they
first emerge in spring, thus preventing monstrous stands from appear-
ing later. Equally important, you’ll be taught how to identify native
seedlings like goldenrods which should be left alone.
The goal is to transform this gentle hill by replacing invasive weeds
with native grasses and perennials, over time becoming an open area
naturally sustained by rainfall, mowing, and selective weeding to keep
the woods at bay.
Wear clothes you can get dirty and sturdy shoes or boots; bring tough
work gloves (something other than cotton) to protect your hands from Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
thorns; and bring a shovel, trowel, and foam kneeler if you have one.
Please contact Robin Simmen for more information about the Native
Songscape and to sign up for either workshop date. Space is limited,
so you must preregister.
For more information and to sign up, click here.
Native Songscape Volunteer Training Weed Workshops:
Saturday, May 15, 2021
(rain date Sunday, May 16)
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Saturday, June 5, 2021
(rain date Sunday, June 6)
Oriental Bittersweet
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
8
Gardening to Save Birds-Continued from Page 5
Fruits of different plants contain different amounts of sugars, fatty acids and other nutrients and ripen in differ-
ent seasons. Sweet fruits predominant in the spring are the native Amelanchier, also known as shadblow or
serviceberry, and wild cherry and mulberry trees. Fall migrants require fruits high in fatty acids; these fruits
are found on the spicebush, magnolia, sassafras and flowering dogwoods. Many fall fruits have a lower lipid
content but are less prone to turn rancid and rot on the plant. These fruits are therefore available later in the
season and include fruits from mountain ash, hawthorn, and cranberry viburnum. Fruits from Viburnum lenta-
go (Nannyberry) shrivel on the vine and remain available for wintering robins, bluebirds and flickers. This is
important when late snowfalls occur and prevent returning robins, thrashers and sparrows from finding earth-
worms, insects and other invertebrates under rotting leaves. Persistent fruits such as bayberry are also vital for
early spring migrants such as the Yellow-rumped Warbler and Tree Swallow when spring cold limits the flying
insects on which they typically feed.
Birds depend on the fat content of fall berries for fuel reserves for migration or for overwintering. However,
berries differ in their nutritional value. Berries from introduced Eurasian plants such as autumn olive, glassy
buckthorn, Japanese honeysuckle and multiflora rose are high in sugar but contain < 1% fat. Berries from na-
tives such as Virginia creeper, wax myrtle, arrowwood viburnum, spicebush and poison ivy are often 50% fat
by weight. Of note is that nearly all invasive shrubs produce their berries in the fall, depriving birds of energy
reserves if they are the only berries available.
Douglas W. Tallamy’s 2019 book Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your
Yard outlines his vision for homeowners and their neighbors to turn their yards into conservation corridors that
provide wildlife habitats. He argues that these corridors, which he names Homegrown National Parks, can be
turned into productive landscapes that contribute to local ecosystem function using those native plants which
are best at hosting edible insects.
The most important edible insect is the caterpillar, which is the
mainstay of most bird diets in North America. Caterpillars are the
larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera, which is the in-
sect order comprising butterflies and moths. Caterpillars are ex-
posed on vegetation and their bodies are soft. They are more nutri-
tious than most other insects, due to the high amount of proteins,
fat and carotenoids. Carotenoids are an essential component of bird
diets, improving color vision and reproduction. They are a major
component of colorful feather pigments. Ninety-six percent of
North American terrestrial birds rear their young on caterpillars
and adult moths rather than seeds and berries. Field research has
documented that nestlings eat full meals 30 to 40 times daily, so a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar
habitat that does not contain enough caterpillars will not be suita-
ble for breeding.
Plants differ by orders of magnitude in their ability to host caterpillars, which runs counter to the assumption
that if a plant is native it contributes to the landscape food web. Estimates are that only 5% of local plants host
70-75% of local Lepidoptera species. These hyper-productive plants have been labeled ‘keystone plants’ by
Dr. Tallamy. Quercas (oaks), Prunus (cherry) and Salix (willow) are the best examples of keystone species in
the mid-Atlantic region. Oaks support 557 species of caterpillar. In comparison, sycamores support 45, black
gum 26 and sweet gum 35. The genus Solidago, goldenrods, is also highly ranked for its ability to host ecolog-
ically valuable caterpillars. Goldenrods produce seed that feeds wintering birds. One hundred nine species of
caterpillars have been recorded on asters.
Continued on Page 10
9
Gardening to Save Birds-Continued from Page 8
The egg and larval stages of the caterpillar are completed on the host plant. More than 90% of caterpillars
drop to the ground before molting to the pupal stage. Lawns, compacted soil, and lack of leaf litter surround-
ing trees make it difficult for the caterpillars to spin their cocoons by burrowing into the soil or leaf litter.
Providing safe pupation sites by replacing or reducing lawns with annuals or perennial beds is vital.
Using research by Dr. Tallamy and his assistant Kimberley Shropshire, the National Wildlife Foundation, U.S.
Forest Service, and the University of Delaware have created a postal code-specific website Native Plant Finder
(https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder) which ranks plants in their ability to host caterpillars. Audubon
has a similar website, Plants for Birds (https://www.audubon.org/plantsforbirds).
Doug Tallamy’s approach to the problem of habitat loss empowers homeowners to take individual action to
support and sustain birds and other wildlife. He urges us to broaden our narrow aesthetic gardening goals and
to focus instead on well-chosen native plants that support other species rather than introduced plants that do
not.
Girls Scouts and Bluebirds
by Martin Faint
Cast your eyes into the field on the corner of Mill Lane and Middle Road in Peconic next time you pass by and
you’ll see that the Eastern Bluebirds that fly low among the cedars have new homes — just in time for spring.
The old bird boxes in the field--owned by the Peconic Land Trust-- had seen better days, so with the kind per-
mission of the Trust, North Fork Audubon Society commissioned new ones.
As ever, a love of nature brings a community together. The seasoned
hands of Bob Aviano and Rob McGinness constructed and assem-
bled the boxes, while placing them was completed by Southold Girl
Scouts Troop 2125, under the guidance of the Audubon Society’s
Jen Murray and Peggy Lauber.
The boxes, which face south-east, are a standard design that has
been found to aid bluebirds. The boxes are mounted on a smooth
metal pole that should prevent raccoons from feasting on the birds,
or their eggs. They were placed about 100 feet apart, to allow the
birds space to flourish.
The Girl Scouts learned that bird boxes have been an important part
of the partial recovery of the Eastern Bluebird, after it had seen its
population plummet due to habitat loss. Now, under the guidance of
the NFAS, the girls will monitor the boxes through the spring and
summer.
“It’s important to protect the local wildlife,” said Girl Scout Phoebe
Faint, age 11, student at the North Fork Audubon’s Society’s Nature
School, and my daughter. “It’s especially important to help animals
like bluebirds whose habitats have been destroyed. It feels good to
help animals like this.”
If you have a fairly open backyard, you too can add a similar box.
Build your own bluebird box: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-build-bluebird-nest-box
10NFAS Speaks Out Against Battery Storage Facility
NFAS has called on the Southold Zoning Board of Appeals to deny to the application of Suffolk County Ener-
gy Storage II, LLC, for a special exception to site an 80-megawatt lithium-ion battery storage facility adjacent
to 325 acres of environmentally-sensitive lands surrounding Pipe’s Cove in Greenport.
Both the Town of Southold and Suffolk County have contributed millions of dollars to preserve this special
place, which is identified by New York’s Department of State as being, along with nearby Moore’s Drain,
“one of the largest saltwater/freshwater wetland complexes on Long Island; rare in the coastal lowlands eco-
logical subregion.” To read the entire document, please click here.
From our president’s correspondence: “The two-acre proposed site is located directly adjacent to a section of
the Bay to Sound trails system, part of a larger surrounding body of both tidal and freshwater wetlands and
forests where many species of birds, including Wood Ducks, Wood Thrush and many warblers live seasonally
and breed. There are also River Otters who are nomadic but feed, spend time and possibly breed in these wet-
lands. They rely on the wetlands to travel to and from nearby ponds (Sills Pond, the ponds at Arshamomaque
Preserve and near Sage Blvd.) where they fish.”
The NFAS board of directors supports the development of battery storage facilities in general, and in conjunc-
tion with renewable energy projects, or for lessening the use of peaker plants, but only if the proposed sites are
appropriate. In our opinion, a site next to such critically-important and unique habitat is not appropriate.
The New York State Energy Research & Development Agency (NYSERDA) created a model law and guide
book, and recommended that municipalities develop a battery storage law, and before doing so, create a Bat-
tery Energy Storage Task Force that “represents all inter-
ested stakeholders, including residents, businesses, inter-
ested non-profit organizations, the battery energy storage
industry, utilities, and relevant municipal officials and
staff to prepare an action plan, adopt or amend a compre-
hensive plan to include battery energy storage system
planning goals and actions, and develop local laws and/or
other regulations to ensure the orderly development of
battery energy storage system projects.”
In addition to environmental concerns, there are safety
issue to consider because, while not common, fires have
occurred at lithium-ion battery storage facilities. In the
Arizona Public Service’s analysis of a fire event, known
as the McMicken Thermal Runaway and Explosion Event,
multiple factors contributed to the fire, including design
flaws, an insufficient fire suppression system, and insuffi-
The project area contains NYS DEC Mapped Wetlands
Click here to view the entire conceptual plan
cient training for first responders.
Regrettably, despite numerous comments from the public and environmental groups, the ZBA determined that
this project will have not negative effects on the environment, a major hurdle the developer had to pass to see
the project move forward.
We do not believe Southold Town has done its due diligence, gone through a process as recommended by
NYSERDA, or developed a local law for guidance. It is imprudent and premature for Southold to consider
Continued on Page 12 11these types of applications without having done broader planning, and without environmental standards or
safety policies in place.
Our president’s letter concluded: “Savion, an out of State company with no connection to the local community,
chose the site because it is within close proximity to a gas energy facility, built decades ago, which in itself
was poorly sited and sits in the middle of environmentally-critical lands. I appeal to you to not compound a
bad decision made years ago with another one, particularly in an age when we know the effects habitat de-
struction and encroachment have had on dwindling wildlife and species populations, including birds.”
North Fork Audubon Board of Directors Take a Hike!
Peggy Lauber As many of our members know, North Fork Audubon
President Society is the steward organization for the Roy Latham
Nature Center and Inlet Pond County Park. We en-
Gwynn Schroeder
Vice President courage you to visit us and explore this magnificent
place! (Please take tick precautions.) To download and
Debbie O’Kane print the park map, click here.
Treasurer
If you would like to volunteer with trail maintenance,
Cassie Kanz or other stewardship programs, please click here.
Secretary
Ellen Birenbaum
Kelly Knutson
Robin Simmen
Contact Information
North Fork Audubon Society
Inlet Pond County Park
64795 County Road 48
Greenport, NY 11944
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 862
Greenport, NY 11944
Website: www.northforkaudubon.org
Email: infor@northforkaudubon.org
12THANK YOU!
To all our members, volunteers and board members, both past and present, we thank you.
Although we don’t have photographs of everyone, you have made a lasting contribution to
North Fork Audubon Society’s 50-year legacy of Connecting People with Nature.
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